Monday, June 6, 2011

Hard to believe it's been less than a week!

Here's a view from where Tom hiked on Thursday with some guys from the Connexxion ministry. They hiked a total of 25 km (about 15.5 miles) that day. The lone skyscraper on the left is in the city center, right next to campus.

This was our little table-top grill with some famous Thuringian (the state Jena is in) bratwurst. Daniel is the Grillmeister!

Another scene from outside the city from Tom's hike...

Katie with Angie, one of the Connexxion workers. We've been doing a lot of walking around the city, enjoying the opportunity to take part with our friends in God's work in Jena.

We visited a Lutheran church Sunday evening where many of the students we've gotten to know attend. Tom is learning to translate more effectively as the days go on. Natasha and Katie's German has been improving, especially the difficult pronunciation!

Thomas, the ministry director, with his youngest son on the left. Vera in the middle just moved in Hamburg to plant a Connexxion ministry there. And Meinhart on the right, who is generously hosting Tom in his apartment this week. These are only a few of the people who have touched our lives already in this city.

Some of our friends live in an apartment called "Community of the Open Door", which is owned by a local church. This past weekend we had a party and got to meet many new people -- it was a great time! Here's a short video of it...
[Note: there's nothing after the first 37 seconds. Not sure why two minutes of blank silence were added to the end. Oh well.] :)